The rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa is both a cause and a consequence of poverty. But while there is a clear link between AIDS and economic insecurity, there is no evidence of a connection between AIDS and security understood in the policing/state security sense of the term. Orphans are a human tragedy but not a direct security threat. AIDS does not appear to be high on the list of political priorities for most Southern Africans. Governments are thus likely to continue to respond to the epidemic unevenly and with limited resources.